The present invention relates to combustion engines and more particularly to an improved fuel container support system for a combustion engine.
Small liquid fuel burning combustion engines utilized in both military and commercial situations for furnishing power to various units such as (but not limited to) portable heaters, portable air conditioners, portable kitchens and portable pumps, have required usage of portable fuel containers to store liquid fuels such as gasoline or diesel oil which serve to fuel the combustion engines. In the past, these containers often have been stored with the same portable structure which serves to house the combustion engine or, if stored separately, have fed fuel to the engine from a position immediately above the engine to utilize gravity flow. The present invention recognizes that these past practices have presented safety hazards, with small quantities of fuel from the container often spilling over on hot combustion engine parts enhancing the risks of unconfined and uncontrollable fires. Recognizing these past safety hazards and, at the same time, recognizing the need for supporting the fuel containers in a preselected position for efficient fuel feeding during combustion engine operations, the present invention provides a unique fuel container support system, that is economical in manufacture, assembly and usage, which is compact for transport and storage with surrounding combustion engine support structure, which can be readily moved to a preselected, safe supportive position by a simple manual manipulation when a fuel container is required to support combustion engine operations and can be returned by an equally simple manual manipulation to the initial compact transport and storage position when combustion engine operations cease.
Various other features of the present invention will become obvious to one skilled in the art upon reading the disclosure set forth herein.